News > Beyond the Plug: The Local Grid

Beyond the Plug: The Local Grid

August 13, 2024

We live in an increasingly power-dependent world. Every day, we rely on electricity in a variety of ways to help us run our lives. It gives us light, keeps our refrigerator running and charges our mobile devices.

At a basic level, the electric grid is a system of interconnected wires connecting the places where energy is produced to where it is used. Great River Energy, the wholesale power supplier to Stearns Electric, generates electricity and uses the grid to move it to ensure reliable electric service as well as quick response times when there is an issue on the electric system.

The local grid delivers electricity from distribution substations, like those owned by Stearns Electric, to members at the end of the line like you. At substations, higher voltages are “stepped down” to lower, more usable levels. Then it is sent along smaller distribution lines to be delivered safely to neighborhoods and farms.

In residential areas, pad-mounted transformers — the big green boxes sitting on the ground in the corner of some properties — make the power safe to use. That energy then runs along lines to power homes, schools, farms and businesses.

The local grid is one important key to helping deliver the power we rely on every day.